Not all landing pages are created equal. How well they convert rests solely on how well you engineer them. Lets discuss thought, design, engineering, and how they make a difference.

Smarter landing pages are 'human friendly.' They're based on what is known about people and what people like and don't like. And that knowledge isn't arbitrary. It's based on research, marketing testing...facts.

In a certain sense your landing pages should be unobtrusive. Your potential customer should feel so relaxed and satisfied with the 'overall' that she just naturally wants to know more and clicks through to your vendor's site.

What elements comprise a smart landing page?

Numerous factors influence what people find appealing. Similarly, there are many ways to subtly influence desired responses in people. Colors, for example. It's known that people tend to respond to different colors in certain ways.

Dark blue tends to evoke feelings of trust. Brighter shades of red are associated with aggression and energy. Shades of gray and darker shades of red are associated more with a sense of 'establishment,' like an established bank.

Carefully consider your target market and who you're sending to your landing pages.

Your copy needs to reflect the appropriate information people need to make a positive decision in your favor. And your copy needs to be in the appropriate amount based on your target market.

Some examples ...

Sidebar: The 'need of your reader' refers to what is necessary to make a positive decision. Your landing page should provide enough to satisfy while creating a desire for more, thus producing a click-through.

If you're promoting music, ask yourself what people 'need' and look for when shopping for music, or a music-related service. People looking for mp3's to download, or a download service, need much less copy than people searching for SEO software.

Mp3 downloader's want a good selection of music. They want to know the benefits a particular service offers. Can the service be trusted? How can you let them know if a service can be trusted? Simple. Show them awards and reviews from media like newspapers or magazines. Of course shoppers are always price-conscious. So you could offer them a comparison of different providers.

All that information can be conveyed with a short amount of copy. They don't need to wade through 400 words of copy to make a decision. If you try to force that on them you risk exceeding the bounds of their patience.

SEO software shoppers, for example, are different and need more information.

In this case, more copy is beneficial if it provides detailed information about the software. Tech specs, comparisons with other popular s/w programs, customer support issues and availability, upgrades, etc. There's a great deal more information that, when properly expressed in terms of benefits, will help push your searcher toward a vendor's page or your own site.

On the other hand, you have to find a good balance between presentations.

You want to avoid having all the information from your destination page on your landing page. Putting too much info on your landing page results in significant duplication and will annoy your reader. There'll be a feeling of wasted time. Not good!

So you need to have the right amount of quality information, in terms of benefits, that will 'compel' your reader to desire more and click through.

Landing page layout certainly influences your conversions.

You want clean, simple, smooth, easy to understand pages that minimize effort. I've found having deep links to relevant destination pages dramatically increase conversions through my landing pages. But make your deep links well-thought out. Get inside the mind of your market.

Another copy technique that's very useful is the appropriate use of bullet points.

These devices are great on landing pages. Bullet points are little benefit headlines. Maximum useful information that's easily digested by the reader. They make for very quick understanding, quick scanning, and minimize decision-making time. Your readers will respond better if your bullets talk in terms of benefits, and not features.

Finally, every marketing effort needs to be tested to maximize conversions and ROI. However if something isn't broken, then by all means don't try to fix it. And only you'll know when you reach that point.